Raglan MXC at Pontrilas

Written by MIKE WOOD Tuesday, 31 May 2011 00:00

The spectacular circuit at Pontrilas is always a popular choice with riders, with it’s mixture of fast sweeping corners, long straights, big jumps and technical off-camber corners – in fact it was so popular they had to run nine races in each block, meaning there were an extra three races packed into the day’s program.

This gave the many spectators that turned up extra value for money at a track that already gives them fantastic access to the in-field which means the whole track can be viewed.

The MX1 Experts kicked off the race action for the day, with a comfortable first race win for Ricky Roberts, followed home by Thomas Card and Alex Barnes. Ricky repeated his win in race two, with Alex finishing second this time and Thomas third. Race three saw Ricky complete his hat trick of victories to grab a perfect score and the overall win, but it was all change behind him. Alex had a good start and was running in fourth, when a problem on lap four put him out of the race. Thomas had suffered an awful start and was having to ride back through the pack, but by the end of the race he was only able to fight his way back to seventh – which was still enough for second overall. Third place in the race went to Matthew Chaplin which gave him just enough points to grab third overall.

Next out were the first of three groups of Seniors. This group saw a very close battle between Peter Bradley and Mark Hook for the overall win. Peter took the first race win, just holding off Paul Bennett in second and Rob Cartwright in third – Mark had been forced to come from mid-pack after a poor start and could only get up to fourth place at the end of the race. Race two saw Mark get a much better start giving him a flag to flag victory by nearly 30 seconds, with Peter in second and Paul in third. Race three was another blistering performance from Mark as he again led the field home by a huge margin, setting a lap time over 10 seconds faster than anyone else in the race. However, Peter rode sensibly to take second across the line, which gave him the overall by a single point from Mark. Jonathon Hoppner fought his way past Danny Finch on the last lap to take third in the race, but a ninth place finish for Paul Bennett was enough to give him third overall. The second group of Seniors was won by Matthew Alford, who posted two wins and a second to clinch the overall. Chris Jackson denied him the clean sweep by winning race two and his other race results of a third and a sixth gave him the runner up spot. The final step on the podium went to Simon Bracey, who struggled in the first race after an error left him middle of the pack and only able to finish tenth – but he made up for this with a third and a second in the final two motos. The last group of Seniors saw a tie for the overall win between Jack Hill and Lewis Allen, with both riders on 155points. Both started their day well, with Jack getting a win and a third in the first two races and Lewis getting a second and a win. Both suffered in the third race though, with Jack unable to get higher than fifth and Lewis having to recover from a poor start and only able to get up to seventh – meaning Jack took the overall by virtue of his higher last race finish. Michael Croudace took third spot at the end of the day, with a consistent set of finishes made up of a fourth, fourth and second.

Inter Junior rider Zak Watkins is used to having it all his own way so far this season, but that changed today at Pontrilas when Ross Falcons rider Reece Bowen took all three race wins. Zak was forced to follow him across the line each time in a strong but distant second place, with Grant Jones taking third overall with a third, fourth and third. Special mention goes to George Lovell, who was the only other rider to get on the podium all day in this class, with a third in race two.

There were two more perfect scores on the day. The first was in the MX2 Experts class, where Joe Russell took all three wins – but these were not easy victories. He was pushed all the way in race one by Josh Roddick, who only lost out by the smallest of margins at the flag – a better start from Josh and he might have had the win. Haydn Crocker took third in this race. Race two saw another one – two from Joe and Josh with a slightly bigger gap between them this time – with Ayton Siorenzie taking third. Race three and it was another start to finish win for Joe, with Ben Haggerty finishing second after holding that position for all five laps. Josh had another mediocre start, meaning another ride through the pack which saw him only able to grab third by the finish. This gave Joe the overall, with Josh second and Ben’s last race efforts saw him take third. The MX2 Juniors saw the last perfect score of the day, with Billy Johnson taking all three race wins by comfortable margins. Harry James took second overall, with a set of improving results which saw him post a fourth, third and a second. Will Abrams took third place, with fifth, fifth and a third. Both Josh Jones and Sam Mumford looked to be on for trophies come the end of the day as both riders scored top three finishes – but errors cost them dearly and more consistent riders were able to rack up more points.

The MX1 Juniors saw one day license holder Martin Gibb-Conway take a thrilling race one victory over home rider Jonathan Hampshire by less than a half a second. Jonathan had had to fight through the pack and just ran out of time – another lap and he would have surely hit the front. Keith Jones followed them across the line in third. Race two saw Jones lead from start to finish to take the win, with Sean Mckenzie finishing second having held that place for the whole race. Jonathon Evans was third with Hampshire again having to work his way through the field to get fifth. Jones put in another solid ride in the third race, leading the first couple of laps before Edward Date passed him and went on to take the win. Jones finished second and this was enough to give him the overall on the day. Third across the line was Daniel Clarke, who had managed to get past Gibb-Conway on the final lap. Another spirited ride through the traffic saw Hampshire get seventh in this race, but his scores added up to second overall, just beating Clarke into third by two points.

I saw Gwent rider Chris Power in the pits on Sunday morning, and he declared he was going to win today – and in race one he did just that, getting the holeshot to lead from gate to finish, and setting the fastest lap of the race for good measure as well! He was followed across the line by Lee Thomas and Darren Savage. In race two, Power hit the front on the third lap and started to pull away from Savage putting a comfortable margin between them. As he started his final lap, it all looked like it was going to be win number two for Power, but then two corners from the finish disaster struck when the bike stalled and refused to start. Savage cruised past to take the win, with Quinton Perrin very close behind him in second and Adam Fowler in third. Power was eventually able to kick his Kawasaki back into life and crossed the line for tenth place. Race three saw a fantastic scrap between Savage and Power for the lead, but halfway through the race, Power started to drop back as his arms pumped up, leaving Savage free to open up a lead and take the win. Lee Thomas had recovered from a disastrous eleventh in race two to fight his way to second in this race with Paul Chandler running a steady pace in third. So Savage took the overall, with Adam Fowler in second and Thomas in third.

Special thanks must go to Karen Reed and the whole of the Raglan MX club, who staged a great meeting on Sunday. They spent many hours watering the track on the Saturday and were able to keep the dust under control with some additional watering during race day. Despite the huge number of entries, all 27 races were completed in good time. I have also been asked by Karen to thank all the people that worked so hard during the weeks leading up to the race, making sure that the circuit was in top condition and getting everything in place to give everyone the best possible day’s racing.

David Richards (www.mxdave.com)

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